PEP, March 2012: Election 2012: Republican bills: Safety busters

Public Employee Press

Election 2012
Republican bills
Safety busters

While workers' safety and health has been a priority for the Obama administration, Republicans in the U.S. Congress and their corporate allies have launched an assault on regulations that protect workers and the public. Among the rules they aim to wipe out are many that protect the lives of DC 37 members and millions more. For example:

Rules to prevent needlestick injuries that could infect health-care workers with the AIDS virus.
Safety standards that protect workers in confined spaces, such as sewers.
Regulations that safeguard workers, schoolchildren and the public when cancer-causing asbestos is removed.

Also on the chopping block are standards for preventing chemical plant explosions and providing emergency oxygen for trapped coal miners.

This backdoor attack doesn't dare take on any of these protections directly. Instead it aims to cripple the entire regulatory process, which the right-wingers call "government interference."

The Regulatory Accountability Act, for example, would override the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Mine Safety and Health Act and make cutting costs to businesses - not protecting workers and the public - the primary focus of rule-making. According to the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, this bill would "totally upend more than 40 years of labor, health, safety and environmental laws."

The fullest flowering of the Republican antiregulatory philosophy is the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, which would block any federal regulation costing business more than $100 million unless it received approval from both houses of Congress and the president. The New York Times called this "a terrible piece of legislation."

Tougher regulations needed

One bill introduced in Congress by Arkansas Republican Don Young is seeking to literally turn back the clock and repeal most existing regulations issued in the last 20 years. DC 37 Safety and Health Director Lee Clarke calls this "part of the Republican plan to attack workers' rights through the back door. It's actually pretty blatant."

A quick look back at 2011 provides evidence as to why regulations in the workplace are so important and need to be strengthened, not attacked.

Investigations revealed that a mine owner's "intentional and aggressive determination to avoid safety compliance and thwart regulators" caused the Upper Big Branch explosion that killed 29 workers in West Virginia, the worst such disaster in 40 years.

The Deepwater Horizon explosion that spilled oil into the Gulf of Mexico was another example of "profits trumping safety and workers paying the price" with their lives, said NYCOSH. The latest figures in the AFL-CIO annual job safety report, "Death on the Job," show that in 2009, 4,340 workers were killed on the job and over 4 million workplace injuries and illnesses were reported.

Working people today need tougher regulations and enforcement, but if the Republicans win in November, they will get more death on the job.

— Jane LaTour